Gloria’s story

Gloria Miranda, 45, lives in a clay-brick house in Cuscatlan, central El Salvador, with her five grandchildren and three of her daughters. Gloria built the house herself – just as she raised her five children herself, without any help from their father.

Mod-cons are notably absent from the family home. There are only three beds, which means the nine members of the household sleep where they can. With no electricity supply, meals are cooked on a basic wood stove. There’s also no TV, nor even a radio.

Even though she doesn’t own a radio set, Gloria is no stranger to the inside of a radio studio. As part of a Progressio-backed initiative, Gloria and five other local women had the chance to produce their very own radio programme, aimed at people just like them.

It was an opportunity – rare in El Salvador – for the views of women, especially women from the poorest sections of society, to be heard on the airwaves.

Indeed, gender equality remains one of the biggest development challenges in the country, one of Central America’s poorest. Gloria and her colleagues knew that, through their radio slot, they had the chance to challenge the attitudes that keep women economically marginalised and vulnerable to violence.

Rising early every Monday and Thursday, the women travelled for two and a half hours by bus to do all the things expected of radio professionals: preparing running orders, writing scripts, getting ready for interviews and learning how to be natural on the air.

There were a few nerves to begin with but the women overcame their fears to produce programmes that not only reflected their own views and concerns but allowed a free exchange of ideas with others.